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New Car Sales in Europe up 9.1% in July 2015, Volkswagen Leads with New Passat, Golf and Polo

Many car companies are lamenting the end of the mid-size sedan segment in Europe. In fact, Honda discontinued the Accord altogether, and Toyota is thinking about doing the same with the Avensis. But the all-new VW Passat is doing really well, jumping to the #5 spot in terms of overall sales, just behind the Clio.
2015 Volkswagen Passat 1 photo
Photo: Catalin Garmacea
The whole car market jumped 9.1% percent in July 2015 compared to the same month of last year. It's the 23rd consecutive month of recovery, which means companies can now rely on more stable demand.

It seems Europeans want lots of new cars as long as they are German. Volkswagen sold a massive 152,160 cars last month alone (+7.7%) and boasted over one million deliveries so far this year. Ford came in second overall, followed by Opel, Renault and Peugeot. Interestingly, all three premium German brands finished in the Top 10 for July: Audi came 6th with 69,567 (up 8.7%), followed by Mercedes in 7th place and BMW in 8th.

On a model-by-model basis, the best selling car in Europe remains the Golf. This family of compact cars registered 46,567 sales in July (+12% compared to 2014) and 322,517 for the year to date. The smaller VW Polo came at distant seconds with 25,960 sales (+14.6%), followed by the Fiesta, Clio and Passat. The all-new generation of VW's mid-size registered a 50% increase in demand, one of the highest of the whole industry. Only about 1,000 sales separated it from the much smaller and cheaper Fiesta.

Despite being told that SUVs are the way of the future, the Top 10 list only holds one soft-roader, the eternally popular and car-like Nissan Qashqai. Volvo's XC60 didn't make the list, but it did register a 35% increase in demand. Rumor has it that it's now the best selling SUV in Europe.

Brian Walters, Vice President of Data at JATO Dynamics, commented “The markets that suffered most at the height of the economic downturn a few years ago, such as Ireland, Spain and Portugal, are now among the fastest growing markets in Europe as consumer confidence has returned.”
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 Download: EUROPE’S NEW-CAR MARKET CONTINUES TO GROW DURING JULY (PDF)

About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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